Bybit has outlined plans to turn its Türkiye business into a financial “super app” offering payments, transfers and investment products beyond crypto trading as the country moves deeper into exchange licensing.
Summary
- Ben Zhou says Türkiye ranks among the world’s top five crypto markets for global exchanges.
- Zhou wants Bybit Türkiye to expand beyond crypto trading into payments, transfers and investment products.
- Bybit’s Turkish entity appears on the regulator’s operating list, which does not equal full authorization.
- Türkiye’s crypto rules cover licensing, custody, capital, AML controls and technology requirements for local platforms.
- Bybit says its post-hack security model now uses zero trust and more separated wallet structures.
Fintechtime reported on Oct. 2 that CEO Ben Zhou sees Türkiye as one of the world’s five most important markets for global crypto exchanges and expects the company’s local operation to expand as regulations become clearer.
Zhou said Bybit wants users in Türkiye to eventually use the platform for daily financial needs, including international money transfers, stablecoin payments and access to investment products. Some of those services would require licenses beyond the permissions available to a standard crypto trading platform.
“We want to transform Bybit into a super application in Türkiye,” Zhou said.
What would a Bybit super app offer in Türkiye?
Bybit’s plan goes beyond buying and selling cryptocurrencies. Zhou said the company wants to offer more financial products over time, potentially covering payments, traditional investments and services for corporate clients.
The strategy mirrors Bybit’s 2026 expansion beyond the traditional exchange model, which introduced plans for banking-style services, custody and cross-border payments. The company has separately expanded into foreign-exchange contracts, traditional-asset derivatives and payment products during 2026.
Zhou told Fintechtime that Bybit could evaluate additional Turkish licenses to fill out the product range. He did not announce specific applications, launch dates or approved new services beyond the exchange business already available through the local operation.
Payments form one part of that strategy. Bybit has developed payment products in other markets and recently connected Bybit Pay with more than 300 wallets, exchanges and financial platforms through Mesh. The company says such infrastructure lets customers spend or transfer crypto from exchange balances. Availability depends on local rules.
For Türkiye, Zhou said stablecoins already see heavy use for cross-border transactions, especially among businesses. He described the country as potentially one of the largest markets for corporate stablecoin payments, though he presented that statement as his assessment rather than an independently verified ranking.
Chainalysis has documented strong stablecoin use in the country. Its 2024 regional research found Türkiye led the world in stablecoin trading volume relative to GDP at the time, while its latest 2026 Global Crypto Adoption Index ranks Türkiye 20th overall under a methodology covering service flows, balances, peer-to-peer activity and cross-border transactions.
Bybit Türkiye expansion still depends on licensing
Bybit’s plans remain tied to Türkiye’s developing licensing system. The Capital Markets Board of Türkiye currently lists Bybit Kripto Varlık Alım Satım Platformu AŞ among companies that have declared their intention to continue operating. The regulator calls the page a “temporary list.”
More importantly, the regulator explicitly states that appearing on the operating list does not mean the company has been authorized under the applicable legislation. Bybit’s presence there should therefore not be described as a completed Turkish operating license.
Türkiye brought crypto service providers under Capital Markets Board oversight through legislation enacted in July 2024. Secondary regulations that took effect in March 2025 set rules covering company organization, internal controls, risk management, technology infrastructure, independent audits and proof-of-reserves reviews.
The rules cover trading, custody, transfers, token listings and capital requirements. Customer crypto kept with a service provider must be handled through authorized custody arrangements, while customer cash and crypto must remain separated from the provider’s own assets.
Money-laundering controls became stricter through separate rules. Türkiye’s June 2025 MASAK framework introduced enhanced customer checks, withdrawal waiting periods and limits for certain stablecoin transfers.
Zhou said local control over wallets, infrastructure and user protection has become a central issue during Türkiye’s licensing process. He expects local exchanges to build more products after licensing while international companies spend more on localization.
Why does Bybit want a bigger role in Türkiye?
Zhou linked Türkiye’s crypto usage to its young population, economic conditions and position between European and Asian markets.
His interview described inflation as one factor behind local crypto adoption, particularly the use of stablecoins. Chainalysis separately estimated that Türkiye received nearly $200 billion in crypto value during the period covered by its 2025 regional research, making it the largest market in its Middle East and North Africa grouping.
Bybit began building a more localized product before the current licensing process was complete. As crypto.news previously reported, Bybit introduced direct Turkish-lira spot pairs in September 2024 for assets including Bitcoin, Ether and Tether.
Zhou said international exchanges and domestic platforms currently bring different strengths. Local companies such as Paribu and BtcTurk have established Turkish-lira payment connections and local user relationships, while global exchanges have developed larger international product menus.
Banks could become partners under Bybit’s model. Zhou said the exchange could supply technology, liquidity and crypto custody infrastructure to banks instead of treating every financial institution as a direct competitor.
Several Turkish banks already appear in the regulator’s crypto framework. The Capital Markets Board’s current temporary list includes custody applications from institutions such as Akbank, Türkiye İş Bankası, Yapı Kredi and Garanti BBVA-related entities.
Bybit is already testing its finance model in Europe
Bybit has used Europe as one example of how it wants to move from a pure crypto exchange toward a regulated financial platform.
Bybit EU operates through an Austrian entity authorized as a crypto-asset service provider under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation. Its authorization covers specified activities including crypto custody, crypto-to-fiat exchange, crypto-to-crypto exchange and transfer services.
Bybit EU’s own disclosure notes that the MiCAR license covers designated services and that some products may fall outside MiCAR supervision. The company therefore operates product availability on a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction basis.
As crypto.news reported during the MiCA transition, Bybit began limiting some global-platform access for European Economic Area users while directing eligible customers toward its Austrian-regulated business.
The group later secured an Austrian electronic-money license for a payments subsidiary, giving it another regulated channel for electronic-money and payment services in the EU. That European structure does not authorize equivalent products in Türkiye, where separate approvals would apply.
Bybit says the 2025 hack changed its security model
Security formed another part of Zhou’s Türkiye plan because the country’s rules place detailed requirements on custody, technology systems and internal controls.
Looking back at Bybit’s $1.46 billion February 2025 hack, Zhou said the company had changed how it manages third-party and wallet risk. The attack was traced to a compromised third-party wallet interface, while the FBI later attributed the theft to North Korea-linked TraderTraitor actors.
“We are now implementing a ‘zero trust’ policy,” Zhou told Fintechtime. He said Bybit has separated more wallet infrastructure so one compromise cannot expose the same concentration of assets.
Bybit’s August 2026 security report said the exchange intercepted more than 30,000 suspicious withdrawal requests during the first half of 2026, representing more than $700 million in potential user losses. The company said it now monitors 100% of business-relevant onchain activity and processed more than 100,000 security alerts with AI assistance.
Bybit’s post-hack security changes, including expanded blockchain monitoring and AI-assisted threat detection.
Bybit filed a civil lawsuit in August against North Korea, its Reconnaissance General Bureau and the Lazarus Group in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The exchange said it had recovered approximately $48.4 million and helped freeze more than $30.5 million across over 28 exchanges and custodians as of that filing.
